Two Worlds Collide
by Shade Penn
Summary: AU. When Kushina wakes up alive after helping Naruto with Kyuubi, she has no idea how this could have happened. But as she begins to settle down, strange things start to happen. Eventual Kushina/Jack.
1. Prologue

Kushina had expected to awake with Minato at her side, not in a dark alleyway with the rain pouring down on her. She spat out of the water that seeped into her mouth and sat up before looking around at her surroundings and noticed the streetlight at the end of the alley on one end. She felt more inclined to go where they're might be people who could tell her where she was.

It didn't look like familiar grounds. Wasn't she supposed to be still dead though? How was she even still around?

Kushina ran out of the alley and into the wide crevice between the building she was at and the ones on the other side. She peered into the darkness out of the streetlight before making her way into the road, only to blink as a blinding light came roving up the lane and she heard a screeching sound as she felt something bump into her side with enough force to send her to the ground.

The redhead blinked as she stared at the thing in front of her with some awe and fear. What was this thing?

The contraption made a sound like a clack and someone had gotten out of it; did people ride in these weird metal things? The person had a hood pulled up to keep the rain off them and Kushina saw that it was a woman with brown hair faming her face and glasses. "Oh, are you hurt? Are you okay? What are you doing out here?"

Kushina blinked stupidly for a moment before she spoke back. "I…I'm…fine," she said cautiously as she felt her side to feel any pain fading and she was left in shock from what had happened, "and I…don't know where I am."

The woman blinked behind her glasses before concern crossed her face. "Do you have amnesia? Do you need to be taken to a hospital?"

Kushina furrowed her brow. "A hospital?" she repeated before her eyes widened and she rapidly shook her head. "No hospital, I'm sure I'll be fine." She said but even to her own ears that sounded lame. She just didn't want to risk going to a hospital in case someone might recognize her and wonder how she was alive again.

Taking in the rain splattered appearance Kushina had, the woman didn't look like she believed her. "Well, let's get you out of the rain at least, how does that sound?"

Kushina thought hard before answering. And it while she knew trusting a stranger wasn't the smartest choice; it wasn't like she couldn't take care of herself. Besides, this woman probably had more reason to be scared of her than the other way around. "Alright then." She said and lifted herself off the ground, cringing as she saw another metal thing speed by them with those lights on the front lighting up the road. She walked over to the metal thing the woman had been in and stared at it before finding the latch and opening it and tentatively getting into the car which was warmer than the outside.

Kushina spent the ride looking out the window and at the surroundings, but the more and more she saw the less that looked familiar to her. Finally she deducted she probably wasn't anywhere in the elemental nations because no city had these types of things to ride around in. It would make travel easier though, because they were warm and provided protection from the outside.

The redhead saw the woman moving the car was glancing at her occasionally with some hesitance and wariness. So the woman didn't trust her that much either huh? Well, Kushina couldn't fault that, not really.

Though she did wonder if her questions were going to be answered so she would have a name to give the place she was and how far away she was from Konoha.


	2. Chapter 1

Kushina looked up at the raining sky through a window, though it wasn't from that metal thing which she learned was called a car, but from inside the woman's house and she was given a blanket to wrap herself in to dry off. She could hear the woman and her husband talking in hushed tones about the woman not taking her to the hospital and bringing her to their home.

Kushina wasn't surprised by the man's suspicion, she herself would have been suspicious in the same circumstance, but she was also rather cheerful and level-headed in her adult years, so it evened out into a very strange comparison. Bottom line; she could understand. She still was thinking over how she could have been brought back to life, maybe some other forbidden jutsu that went wrong?

She didn't know, and it frustrated her with not knowing.

As the rain let up and the moon shined through, Kushina finally saw the state she was in as her reflection was too dark to make out in the window, and what she saw shocked her. Her hair was long and disheveled, no surprise there as it was like that from the rain, but she looked like a teenager! Or rather, she looked like she had when she had been in her teenage years, it would explain why the ground seemed closer somehow. Her face was younger and when she looked down at her body in the towel, it was _also_ younger!

_How?_ She wondered mystified, _how was this possible?_ But with the knowledge of chakra, demons and Jinchuuriki, she shouldn't have been so surprised by this. Clearly her location had not been the only thing that was different. Her clothes were the ones she had been wearing though, even if they felt looser, but it was small comfort to her as she didn't know where she was, how she arrived, or _why_ she was there.

Kushina looked up at Mrs. Bennett as the woman had introduced herself. "You can stay for the night," The woman said slowly, like she wasn't quite sure how Kushina would react, "but tomorrow you really should let me take you to the hospital, someone must be missing you."

Kushina looked back out the window, still able to see the reflection of the woman in the glass. "No one's missing me," she said with conviction no matter how much it hurt to admit. "They're dead."

She was speaking in broad terms, as she was hopeful with Naruto being still alive, but she wasn't about everyone else she cared about.

She saw Mrs. Bennett's face contort in understanding. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's no problem, I've been…alone for a while now." Kushina said absently. "But I'll go to the hospital, it's the least I can do for imposing on you and your family like this."

Mrs. Bennett held up her hands quickly. "No, no imposing, just get a good night sleep."

"Thank you." Kushina said and leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes. She felt like she was being watched and opened her eyes to see Mrs. Bennett still standing there, a look of surprise on her face. "Yes?"

"It's just…well, we have a guess room you could use." She offered and Kushina shook her head.

"No, I'm quite fine here." She replied.

Mrs. Bennett looked at her somewhat strangely before nodding. "Well, if you're sure…" she said hesitantly and when Kushina didn't answer, she made her way back through the room she went in.

Kushina leaned back against the window and saw the glow in the other room turn off as the sounds of footsteps making their way up the stairs rang in the house quietly. Just as she closed her eyes for a second time, it wasn't long before she found herself dreaming about Minato and Naruto, and how things could have been. The nostalgic and want she had for this scene to be a reality start to become a nightmare as everything started to disappear, first the scene, then Minato, and as she grabbed a hold Naruto, she felt him vanish from her arms.

Kushina stared at the empty space around her, the sense of loneliness was overwhelming and she couldn't help but find it disturbing that something so wonderful had become such a nightmare.

The redhead's eyes snapped open and she gasped at what she saw outside. Swirling around in the air was something that looked remarkably like sand. She got off her perch, though she kept the blanket around her as she walked into the kitchen and didn't know what to do. She rubbed a hand over her face and when she saw the mirror on the wall, she noticed something in the background and narrowed her eyes as she tried to make out what the glow could have been in the dark.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she started to see details and her eyes widened as she made out what the glow resembled. She whirled around and looked rapidly in the direction the mirror had been in and walked briskly back into the living room backwards, her eyes warily searching for the person she thought might have been in the room with her.

She was really hoping that this was just her imagination playing tricks on her and that there really _wasn't_ someone in the house. She sat back down on her perch and when she looked out the window, she saw that there was still sand whirling around before it all seemed to disappear. Kushina wrapped the blanket around her and looked down at the window pane to see flecks of gold dust on it that wasn't there previously. She frowned and thought that it looked like the sand outside.

Shaking her head, Kushina leaned back against the window and tried to go to sleep.


End file.
